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Losing Muscle Mass

Just a quick update and a question. Took Sydney to the cardiologist yesterday for his checkup. All in all we are very pleased that he is still doing well. There is no coughing, lungs and abdomen are clear and his heart rate is also good. His appetite is great. Yeah! this is all good news.

Anyway the one concern is that he has lost another pound. This is 4 pounds in the last 3 months. He has lost a lot of muscle mass and she suggested I give him more dry food. I've cut back some on the dry as his teeth are bad and he has a hard time eating, but I supplement his dry food with a premium wet food with nice chunks of chicken or beef or lamb.

After fighting the battle of the bulge with him for years, I now have to add food! Any suggestions on what to give that would still be healthy but help with lost muscle? I'm already giving him extra protein.

Rod, he doesn't get very much. We usually walk about 5 mins. 2x a day. About all he can handle for a walk. When it is nice out we stay outside as much as possible and he still enjoys walking around the yard and slow chasing any birds or other critters he sees.

No formal massages, but I do give him lots of rub downs. I'll try to concentrate more on the hind legs as they do give him trouble and they're not very stable.

I agree with you also about adding weight. Any gain in weight should come from muscle. I think the aim is to help him maintain his weight in the most healthy way, which is why I looking for healthy ways to do that.

I not sure if this is what you are looking for, or if this will help, but I have used a product called Enervite, a nutritional supplement for non-eating and sick or elderly dogs, in the past.
They always seemed to love it and it usually stimulated a better appetite.

I no longer seem to be able to get it in the UK, and as my eleven year old Japanese Chin, Fonzi, is sometimes reluctant to eat & is now losing weight I am going to try Nurish-um dog paste and see if that will do a similar job....

I am going to throw out a left field idea...but is there a way to put on muscle (like weight training for humans) without having to do more cardio that Sydney can handle? I know I am human, but when I went down to 96 pounds and lost all my muscle mass after 2 intense leg surgeries...they needed me to add muscle, not fat (because I was quite sick) and I could not move around that much due to my leg, so I strength trained for about a year vs. cardio (about 10 min of walking a day was all I got). It helped me get my weight back up to a manageable point and gave me the muscle mass I needed to start recovery. So yeah, that is a human response and I don't know the answer for a dog, but I am just wondering what you could do for Sydney that would be strength training vs. cardio.

Anyone know if something like strength training/weights exists for dogs?

I not sure if this is what you are looking for, or if this will help, but I have used a product called Enervite, a nutritional supplement for non-eating and sick or elderly dogs, in the past.
They always seemed to love it and it usually stimulated a better appetite.

I no longer seem to be able to get it in the UK, and as my eleven year old Japanese Chin, Fonzi, is sometimes reluctant to eat & is now losing weight I am going to try Nurish-um dog paste and see if that will do a similar job....